Started a side section first as a swatch. Found the bag handles cheap online at Quilting-Warehouse.com. Didn’t realize how much this project’s costs would add up until I saw someone else totaling their amounts.

10/7: Finished the knitting the other day. Sewed up my pieces. I had quite a bit of trouble figuring out how to sew the bottom of the sides down. It took some trial and error to figure out how much to pleat the bottom. I whipstitched the sides and bottom on, but I used mattress stitch when sewing down the pleats on the sides. I am thinking that my gauge wasn’t right for the lace sections because I really had to ease them in to the double seed stitch sides. Now on to the structure. My store only had plastic mesh in 12’x18’. I am making do because I don’t want to order any online.

I can’t tell if I am reading something wrong, but the structure sides are 17.5” wide and the box it fits over is 16.5” wide. It is very hard to sew the two together because you can not ease in extra plastic mesh! I think I may cut my sides down a bit so they fit better together. And then I’ll have to angle my box so that it can fit over. Or maybe I’ll just sew in some scraps of mesh into the sides that there isn’t a gap. I wish I could just be knitting instead of futzing with this!

10/15: Finally finished this bastard! For the plastic mesh, I just loosely whipstitched the short sides together (with 1/2” in between the two plastic pieces) to keep the angle of the outside plastic. I used the sewing machine to sew the handle fabric onto the exterior lining. I then sloppily sewed the exterior lining down through the mesh. Then I whipstitched the knitting down to the exterior lining. My interior lining ended up much too big using their dimensions. I had to cut about an inch off of the long side. Then I put that in and whipstitched the interior lining to the exterior lining. I left the section between the handle fabric and exterior lining unsewn, but may go back in after and figure it out. I can make this more clear if any one needs help. There was a lot of figurin’ out on this one. Oh, and I sewed a pocket onto the lining fabric before I sewed it into the bag.

My knit sides were a little big for the structure. I tacked down the edge of the bottom so that the sides didn’t slop over onto the bottom making it puffy around the bag feet.

I have similar notes on my blog, but maybe some extra info. Find it here.